Currently available cookie dough compositions result in baked cookie pieces that have spread and flattened during baking and cooling. These flattened surfaces have a tendency to “double” during coating operations such as panning with chocolate. That is, due to the rotating tumbling action of the coating pan, the flattened surfaces will come together and two pieces will become coated in chocolate instead of having each piece individually coated in chocolate. When two pieces are coated together, they are referred to as a “double”. These “doubles” are considered undesirable from a consumer perspective and should be avoided. Therefore, there is a need to create a cookie piece that retains a rounded shape after baking and cooling and can then be coated with less “doubling”.
Turning now to prior art patents, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,669 (the '669 patent) shows pyramidal cookie pieces coated with chocolate to form rounded lentil shapes. However, the '669 patent does not teach the compositions, specifically with regard to the fat to sugar ratio. Additionally, the '669 patent does not provide a rounded or lenticular cookie piece—only a pyramidal cookie bit. U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,582 generally describes a compressed baked composition that is subsequently baked but there is no teaching of shape and no teaching of fat to sugar ratios or sugar particle sizes.